Pheasants: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan ... - IUCN

Project 11. Developing methods for reintroduction
of pheasants
Aims: to investigate and test different methods for reintroducing
pheasants; to evaluate the use of such
techniques in pheasant conservation.
Justification: when a species or subspecies disappears from
all or part of its range, saving it from extinction may depend
on the successful re-introduction into the wild of birds bred
in captivity or translocated from elsewhere in the species’
range. For future re-introductions to succeed, it is essential
that breeding, trapping, and translocation techniques are
adapted to suit local conditions and particular species.
Project description: ideally, non-threatened pheasant species
should be chosen as test subjects for this project (e.g., silver
pheasant, kalij pheasant, red junglefowl). Areas containing
suitable habitats, but lacking pheasant populations, should
be identified as release sites, with founder birds or eggs
being taken from local wild populations, as well as from
captive birds in different experiments. Survival and
reproduction of the re-introduced birds should be monitored
in comparison to wild ones at control sites, or in the same
places in the case of supplementation (i.e. re-stocking)
experiments.
Timescale: this project is expected to require at least three
years to collect basic data on the survival and breeding
success of released birds, but a longer-term monitoring
programme should be established.
Resources: each project requires an experienced ecologist
and a team of field assistants, plus radio-tracking equipment.
Project 12. Deriving and implementing
habitat management strategies for
better-known threatened pheasants
Aims: to use existing research results to produce feasible
habitat management recommendations; to implement these
and monitor their impact.
Justification: recent research on a number of threatened
species (e.g., Cabot’s tragopan, cheer pheasant, Elliot’s
pheasant) has produced results that can now be translated
into management action for their conservation. Such
recommendations should be made explicit, be implemented
on the ground, and be monitored for their effectiveness.
Project description: in the case of Cabot’s tragopan, plans
should be developed with provincial forestry departments
enabling replacement of some conifer plantations, after
felling, with native broadleaf woodland including
Daphniphyllum macropodum, a tree species known to be
used for food by this species. For cheer pheasant, the grass
and scrub management regimes that produce conditions
favouring population persistence need to be reproduced in
new areas. For Elliot’s pheasant, management of conifer
plantations should be focused on encouraging the vigorous
growth of the understorey vegetation and assessing the
effects of this on abundance. In all cases, these management
regimes should be monitored over the long term to assess
the effectiveness of the strategies adopted, with a view to
improving them further and applying them on a larger scale.
Timescale: projects need to be of at least five years’ duration,
with even longer-term monitoring recommended.
Resources: these projects would necessarily involve local
forestry and wildlife protection agency staff working at
study sites, as well as an experienced ecologist and a team
of field assistants in each case.
4.4 Projects for Critically Endangered
and Endangered species
Project 13. Vietnamese lowland Lophura
pheasants
Aims: to clarify the taxonomic status of the imperial,
Edwards’s, and Vietnamese pheasants; to conduct further
distribution surveys and research into habitat use; to continue
improving the management of captive populations.
Justification: there is confusion over whether these three
forms of lowland Lophura pheasant in Vietnam represent
one, two, or three species. As they currently include two of
the three most severely threatened pheasants in the world,
the outcome of taxonomic research could have profound
effects on the future direction of conservation work for
them. Extremely little is known in detail about the habits
and habitat requirements of these birds in the wild, so
additional distribution and habitat use data are required.
Existing and planned protected areas can then be better
managed for their conservation. The populations of
Edwards’s and Vietnamese pheasants in captivity may
nevertheless represent a real insurance against their total
extinction.
Project description: taxonomic investigations are underway,
but more data are required before a stable consensus can be
reached. Information on populations that comes to light
from survey work and poster campaigns directed at local
people, data on habitat use, and particularly findings on
their tolerance of secondary and degraded forest, will be
extremely valuable. There is an immediate need for the
protection of the Net River watershed for Vietnamese
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